Connecting with God through poetic articulations of lived, embodied experience–engaging texts from the Revised Common Lectionary for Christian churches, other biblical and spiritual texts, and evocations of the divine in rituals and other public events–always accepting lived reality as a primary source of divine revelation and mystery.

Reflection on the 5th Sunday after the Epiphany

Being salt of the earth is not easy nor is it simple to be the light of the world. But Jesus told disciples that is what they are, what we are, too, if we take our vocation seriously. Salt enhances the flavor of our faith, perhaps the faith of others because ours is so tasty, helps preserve faith when times are tough. Light can help us see, but what Jesus really meansis our light is meant to help others see.

Faith needs pepper too, black for sure, maybe cayenne, surely garlic and oregano, even paprika if it is to be strong, resilient and ready to upend us from our lethargy and acquiescence to the way things have always been. We need full-bodied faith, richly textured, deeply flavored, pungent to attract attention not to us but to God working in us. The prophet says shout loudly, don’t hold back, lift every volce and sing, and I say people need not only to hear our faith but also to smell it, to be drawn from spiritual emptiness, aromas reminding them how hungry they are for the more they know exists but cannot seem to find in the usual holy places, showing them there is a source, a spiritual diner, cafeteria, just waiting to feed them with love and glory of God all their lives. This the fast to which we are called: to open our repast to the hungry, to bring scents of heaven to the outcast, to feed the lost with the succulent, never-ending feast of God.

There needs to be more than light, too. To see the stars we must be in the dark, heavens more visible at night, often a time when divine stillness settles in, and souls brood in their native habitat, primordial darkness from which God made, makes, light. We need to be more than the light, others need us to share luminous darkness of our souls buried deep in first threads of life where we were created and in whom we move and have our being. We need to bring the dark night of our souls Into the temple, freely, fully, offering ourselves, letting go of our attachments to things and places, turning all over to God, falling in love again with God, not so much for our sake but for God’s sake. This the fast to which we are called: to go to our deepest, darkest places and know how lovable we are, how lovable all are, stars shining in darkest heaven right here on earth, world without end.